Happy Funeral Hanko

This undertaking has gathered and involved more than 888 artists from all 6 continents

My Happy Funeral (actually a series of many happy little funerals) is a light game of metaphysical enchantment about a poor poet still searching for the beauty of the unknown, still grappling with the question, ” Why do we die and how long will our death last?…”

In March of 2009, the United Artists Project embraced the latest Vinko Prizmic masterpiece. This work of outstanding artistry is paradoxically entitled My Happy Funeral. Six continents and the participation of 888 artists hosted a series of many “happy” funerals that convey the metaphysical enchantment of a poor poet searching for the beauty of the unknown while seeking the answer to the question that asks, “Why do we die and how long will our death last…?”

The first Happy Funeral was held in Paris on the 21st of March 2009, more performances followed all around Europe–St.Moritz, Wroclav, Berlin, Copenhagen , Stockholm, Helsinki, Barcelona, Amsterdam, Cahors and Florence. During this unusual journey, Vinko Prizmic was accompanied by his Muse, Nora Amore Conde, and by a coffin with a soul – Something Better (decorated by German artist Niki Boden).

The most recent leg of this journey brought Vinko Prizmic to Asia—to the magical volcano of Mt. Pinatubo where he met up with Something Better Jr. (an amazing coffin that transforms to a Steamer Trunk, a masterpiece of furniture designer Don Quixote Jr. alias Matthew S. Brill). This unusual performance of My Happy Funeral lent the volcano’s crater a brilliant glow of sad and joyful happiness and poetry. Shortly after, this metaphysical fairytale continued to Sydney, Australia, then to Zimbabwe, Africa…

Vinko Prizmic felt the call for the fifth continent yet to be visited, and went on to San Francisco, North America. In January 2014, accompanied by the former angels of San Francisco Ballet, Something Better Houdini (the only foldable coffin in the world designed by M.S.Brill ) gently and graciously resting on the cliffs of the Golden Gate skyline.

The sixth and last continent was South America. Welcome to Buenos Aires. The guests, as well as the statues of noble angels of the “La Recoleta Cemetery” were delighted, amazed and confused by such unusual performance.

The upcoming performance, in Hanko, Finland, will be a World Premiere, something you probably have not seen or imagined before

Along with this exquisite voyage will be presented two magical machines, by French wizard of mechanical movements Gilbert Peyr.

Aimer est plus difficile que mourire…

Traveling to six continents carrying one’s own coffins is a wondrously daring tour… embarked upon to enlighten the living with the metaphysical concept of a divergent view of the end of life. It cannot be described as a theater piece, nor as a performance act. It cannot be embraced in any known art form because nobody ever has ever served as a traveling ambassador of the sensitive, emotional, and painful subject of death.

To love is more difficult than to die

is a world premiere of a brazen attempt to cause one to look past the defined boundaries of discussing the inevitable.

2015
The Critics of Pre world premier of Happy Funeral in Hanko, Finland

Written by Steven Ditmyer, Director and Acting Teacher from NYC who teaches the Meisner Technique internationally.

Vinco Mario Prizmic’s performance art piece “Happy Funeral” is an intimate, thought provoking, intense and fun evening of theatre which takes us on an amazing journey to confront the one thing we all try not to talk about – death, and especially our own death. And he succeeds wonderfully with poignant tales taken from his own personal encounters with death from different points in his life and all the while making us smile and laugh at such a serious subject. This is the beauty of Happy Funeral. It is wonderful story telling. Moving around his own coffin Mr. Prizmic captures the audiences attention and never lets it go. We hear about very personal and moving moments in his life that made him think about death as well as stories about his experiences traveling around the world performing Happy Funeral for different cultures in many exotic and dangerous locations. When he talks it feels like you are in a small room with him somewhere having a deep personal conversation and he is trying to pass on what he has learned and to make you think about things in a different way and to look at things from a different angle. Before you know it he has your full attention and you can’t wait to hear what comes next. I especially like the interjections and questions he asks the audience between his stories such as “We celebrate our birth with singing happy birthday, why don’t we ever sing happy death day? Wherever Mr. Prizmic performs Happy Funeral he ends with getting inside his coffin and then has it closed and carried off to a nearby location of importance while the audience follows turning into a funeral march. The effect is powerful. I was lucky enough to have witnessed his performance in Hanko, Finland where his casket was carried from the theater down the street to a beach on the edge of the Baltic Sea at night with a full moon. He then opens the casket and tells his final story. Happy Funeral is a beautiful piece of theatre that will make you not only question your own death but your own existence as well…

Heinz Peter Schwerfel

Born 1954 in Cologne, Germany. Studied philosophy and art history in Aachen and Paris (Sorbonne IV). In 1979, political editor at AFP (Agence France Presse) in Paris. Correspondent in Paris for “ART – Das Kunstmagazin” (Hamburg) from 1981 to 1987. Also worked for the popular cinema program “Etoiles et toiles” on French TV station TF1 and French & Germain Tv Arte.

A poet like Vinko on a theater stage is neither an actor nor a standup comedian – Vinko is a story teller of a different kind. Different in presence, because he is non-professional. Different by authenticity because he is himself. Different by his stories because he tells his own life, not fiction. He is not fictionalizing his life, even if the public might have this impression, he is not dramatizing, he is just himself. In the Eighties the American actor Spalding Gray invented this kind of stage presence – telling the public with his very own words his very own experiences.

Vinko did the same, using very few objects – a suitcase, some photos, and, of course, his coffin – to speak about his performance of the ‘Happy Funeral’, performed on all six continents. Using his very special way of speaking in English, his humor, but also his spleens, his melancholy, his loneliness, he created a fascinating monologue, an intense moment of living poetry. As if live was adventure in verses – which it should be.

Maria Usanova
An Economist and Marketing Consultant from Moscow, Russia

His performance was very special and sincere, very touchy and emotional. It is solo performance, improvisation, monologue, philosophy and a fairy tale at the same time.
He have a talent of catching people’s attention and bringing them to other worlds: may be to the worlds of their childhood, may be to some secure places of their imagination.
What I can say for sure, those few people who came were listening to you literally with open mouths like…, when they listen to the stories of their bellowed grand parents. And we would stay listening for much longer. I regret I failed to film all the performance. One moment I unconsciously put the camera away because I wanted to listen and listen and listen. I turned into two big ears )) You are the best story teller I know. And you stories heal.
The second part was a bit messed up but never mind. When death came everyone behaved decently. No tragedy, but sweet shades of sadness and mystery in the moon light.
No rehearsal, no professional equipment, just ‘madmade friends’ that have their souls and stories and an your open heart. What you do, Vinko, is wonderful. Please keep on. We are hungry for these kind of stories.

Ines Trickovic… Jazz singer from Croatia/Macao

The Happy Funeral performance in Hanko, by Vinko Mario Prizmic is I can honestly say one of the best, maybe even the best and most magical performance I have seen in my life. The passion, the art that he shows in this performance surpasses stage, you can hear see and experience that he is living it fully and constantly in his life. It goes beyond a stage performance, it is life. It made me think of the golden surrealist age and Dadaist times, times I always yearned I could experience and see live. During and after the show I realized and felt how it must have been to see some of the greatest like Dali, Max Ernst, Meret Oppenheim, or Kurt Schwitters to perform live. That is how this performance made me feel. It lifts up the human spirit, It breaks borders, it ping-pong’s you through time and space and leaves you breathless and lifted up, yearning for more. It’s bold, crazy, honest, magical. It’s alive. Vinko Mario Prizmic in my opinion is one of the greatest living artists of our times.